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CHAPTER 5

SUMMARY

1. INTRODUCTION

The research focused on consumers attitude and consumers behavior in

relation to environmental problems. It started with the assumption that

environmental problems were closely related to individual consumer attitude,

and that individual consumer behavior was one of the major causes for the

existing environmental problems. Several studies argued that current

consumption practices and consumer behavior cannot be called sustainable.

If substantial changes are not made to the same, such consumption pattern will

definitely lead to disastrous situation in the long term. In India also, such

prevailing consumption practices are posing a serious threat to the environment

and to society as a whole.

Consumers in developed countries in general, are more aware of ecological

issues and they show greater environmental concern as they are already paying

a heavy toll on account of environmental degradation that has occurred during

the seventies and eighties due to rapid industrialization and development of

their economies. As a reaction to this general societal problem, developed

countries started giving importance to corporate social responsibility (CSR). A

large number of environmental organizations have mushroomed in these

countries to champion the cause of environmentalism.

In case of developing countries the scenario was absolutely different, there

people were neither aware nor were willing to know about damage being done

to the environment by human beings and the repercussions which their

successor will have to bear. There was also a dearth of research and literature

in less effluent societies. Such great need of research in the area and urgency of

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spreading awareness about the environmental dreadful conditions inspired the

researcher to carry out a research in the area.

In India the concept of CSR was progressively picking up and had changed the

role of marketing at large: In the social marketing concept, the long-term

interests of the consumer and social welfare had taken a mainstream while

profit making was expressed as a long-term objective. One of such CSR steps

adopted by the corporate to show their green footprint was green marketing.

There was a wide contradiction among marketing experts about the gap

between attitude and behavior of the consumers regarding green consumption;

the other group of experts was of opinion that while consumers were

increasingly demanding environmental protection, their behavior did not really

reflected this attitude: they were not aware of the damage being done to the

environment out of their activities. Moreover people were not knowledgeable

of green alternatives (and even if they were knowledgeable, they did not

consider these green alternatives available and feasible); Many people thought

that environmental protection was not their responsibility rather they fancy

action should be taken not by them but by other institutional actors, mainly the

state government and corporate.

Therefore, the purpose of the dissertation was set to examine the possibilities

for environment friendly marketing within the current economic system

through a better understanding of environment friendly consumer behavior.

The basic objective was to obtain pragmatic findings which can be utilized by

the marketers who have a green motto in their doings. The research, so in

addition to taking into account the complexity of environment friendly

behavior, also put stress on environmentally aware purchase decisions, and the

perceived barriers in the way of adopting green lifestyle.

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2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY WERE:

1. To assess the awareness of consumers regarding environmental problems

2. To analyze the attitude and behavior of Indian consumers towards green

products

3. To identify obstacles that respondents perceive to come in the way of adopting

green lifestyle

4. To segment consumers in Pune according to their green lifestyle into five

consumer segments:

a) belonging to highly green group (True Blue Greens)

b) belonging to moderately high green group (Green Backs)

c) belonging to medium green group (Sprouts)

d) belonging to low green group (Grousers)

e) belonging to non green group (Basic Browns)

For the purpose of the study green consumer was defined as:

Who is mindful of environment related issues and obligations, and is

supportive of environmental causes to the extent of switching allegiance from

one product or supplier to another even if it entails higher cost.

The wider interpretation ascertains the complexity of the behavior in a more

authentic way and calculates with trade-offs between the individual attitude

and behavior dimensions, while the narrower approach can identify more

efficiently those factors that are hidden in the background of a given activity.

The relationship between consumer attitude and behavior for eco friendly

product features in a given purchasing situation. Through testing the

hypotheses the researcher was able to identify what demographic features had

impact on the purchase behavior of the consumers and validity of its worth,

trying to influence the consumer in order to develop a market for green

products. The objectives were to find out the perceived barriers to come in the

way of adopting green lifestyle, the relationship of attitude towards

environment and behavior, and to segment Pune population according to their

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green concerns. The researcher has applied an approach that was not new in

research of environment friendly consumer behavior. To find out the existence

of relationship between eco friendly attitude and behavior Chi Square test was

employed, the research not only considered the issue based on the consumers

opinion and attitude, but also investigated the behavior in a concrete

purchasing situation.

Findings of the study in regard to environmental awareness and knowledge

appeared somewhat in contrast to those found in the context of consumers in

developed countries. But there exist discrepancies in environmental behavior

(recycling), knowledge, and attitudes as well as more general attitudes and

personality traits even among the developed counties reported Sammer136

(2006), she Matched samples of French (N = 56) and American (N = 112)

adults and found that Americans environmental attitudes were more pro-

ecological.

3. HYPOTHESIS TESTING

Demographic analysis

To develop an in-depth idea about the demographic characteristics of the

respondents and to find out the relationship of demographic characteristics and

their respective eco concerns one way ANOVA test was employed. The results

were in confirmation with the hypothesis1 Environmental concern varies with

age and income of respondents"

Demographics of an individual were found to have an impact on ones

environmental concern. Thus the first hypothesis which says that there is no

linkage existing between demographic variables and the environmental

concern was checked with the help of one way ANOVA where demographic

variables where taken as an independent variable and examined its relationship

with the depended variables (Knowledge, Attitude, behavior and lifestyle).

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The finding showed that the calculated value of F was higher, which was more

than the table value at 5% level with d.f. being v1=3 and v2=16 and hence

could have arisen because of difference in the sample mean and not because of

chance. This analysis accepted the 1st hypothesis which states that

Environmental concern varies with age and income of respondents". It is

therefore concluded that the difference in opinion about different variables

(Attitude, behavior and lifestyle etc.) is significant and is because of difference

in demographic variables.

Demographic information relating to the sample found significant differences

between the groups, as can be seen from the analysis. The major differences

between attitude and behavior types appeared to focus around a definitive split

between non- environmentalists and other groups. With the age, there were

notable changes from the committed to occasional green purchasers, with

higher frequencies in the younger groups. Briefly, the demographic profile of

the different groupings can be summarized as:

As far as knowledge was concerned, the age of committed environmentalists

was at the lower side, with the age of non-environmentalist the highest; or in

other words the aged people possess lesser knowledge about the environment

as compared to other groups where as it is highest for the younger most

generation. Whereas the youngest of all had highly positive attitude and the

middle aged have lowest level of attitude towards the environment. The oldest

of all showed very good purchase behavior and the middle aged ie between 39-

49 showed a very negative purchase behavior. Same was the case with

conservation behavior, the oldest people in the sample were good at conserving

environment whereas the middle aged people with 39-49 years of age showed a

negative sign in conserving the environment. The barriers towards adaptation

of green lifestyle were the highest for the age group of 29-39 years and it was

lowest for the oldest population as per percentage analysis.

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The lowest income group had great information and the middle income group

had least information about the environmental degradation. But they failed to

show positive attitude towards the environment. The Higher middle income

class had the most positive attitude and showed their attitude in purchase

behavior as well. The lowest income group failed to buy green products. As far

as conservation behavior was concern the higher middle class had taken a lead

and the lowest income group was the lowest conservator. The barriers were

high for the lower middle class whereas the lowest class sees the barrier to be

not very high.

Evidently there were more trends that could have been described from the data,

but for the purposes of brevity it is kept limited. It is very interesting to note

that those most committed to sustainable consumption were young, males

belonging to the business class of the society and are not financially very well

off.

These assertions were clearly generalizations. However, they were based on

discernible statistical patterns. What must be noted was that there were no clear

distinctions that can be drawn along a continuum, from committed to non-

environmentalist. There were variable demographic characteristics depending

on which cluster was examined. Nonetheless, there were clear trends that have

significant implications for policy makers.

To check the second hypothesis which states that, There is no relationship

between consumers attitude and purchase behavior of green products? A Chi

Square test was performed on the data where questions on green attitude

(Column) were tested with all purchase behavior questions (Rows), The table

value of 2

for nine degrees of freedom at 5% level of significance was 16.9.

The calculated value of 2 in each case was much higher than the table value

which meant that the calculated value cannot be said to have arisen just

because of chance. It was significant. Hence, the hypothesis does not hold

good. This means that the attitude of consumers does replicate in its purchase

behavior. Hypothesis 2 accepted.

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There were cases when, while purchasing, people hesitate to buy green because

of expensive nature of green products, but they try to conserve ecology for

various other reasons like, to save money or to take care of their own health.

When there existed no significant association between attitude and purchase

behavior, it was reasonable to examine whether the attitude had any impact of

conservation behavior or not.

To check third hypothesis which states that, There is no relationship between

consumers attitude and conservation behavior, the study found out the

association of attitude with conservation behavior. Chi Square test was

performed on the data where attitude questions (Column) where tested with all

conservation behavior questions (Rows) The table value of 2

for nine degrees

of freedom at 5% level of significance is 16.9. The calculated value of 2

in

each case was found to be much higher than the table value which means that

the calculated value cannot be said to have arisen just because of chance. It was

significant, hence, the hypothesis does not hold good. This means that the

attitude portrayed by the respondents does not relate with the conservation

behavior. Hypothesis 3 accepted.

Both conservation behavior and purchase behavior of the consumers were not

related to the attitude hence it can be concluded that behavior was independent

of attitude.

Pune consumers have shown inconsistency in their attitude and behaviors

many of them were having positive attitude but failed to replicate it by green

purchasing, whereas some have the vice versa situation. Many people had good

knowledge score but when it came to show it through purchasing or

conservation of the ecology they failed.

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4. SEGMENTATION OF RESPONDENTS INTO 5 SEGMENTS AS

PER ROPERS73

MODEL

To identify environmentally conscious behavior, the respondents needed to be

segmented on the basis of their behavior, which in turn was based on whether

or not they had environmentally conscious views. For these, clusters of

environmental aware and environmental non aware respondents were

created, with the help of the percentage analysis. For this purpose, Ropers

Green Gauge73

segmentation model was used, which divided the population of

United States into five segments:

a. TRUE BLUE GREENS - Willing to gather information and contribute money

to environmental groups, make a conscious effort to adopt green lifestyle.

b. GREENBACKS- Willing to pay extra for environmentally preferable

products.

c. SPROUTS- Willing to engage in environmental activities from time to time

but only when it takes little effort.

d. GROUSERS- Do not believe that individuals play any significant part in

protecting the environment.

e. BASIC BROWNS- Simply not convinced that environmental problems are all

that serious.

The Green Gauge segmentation sought to segment US consumers based on the

following:

Environmental attitudes (e.g., concern for global warming)

Environmental behaviors (e.g., recycling)

Environmental knowledge (e.g., reported knowledge levels)

Barriers to a green lifestyle (e.g., time, money, information)

Taking into consideration the above mentioned criteria, the present study also

divided Punes population into following 5 categories with the help of

percentage analysis

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TRUE BLUE GREENS -20 (4%) - Willing to gather information and

contribute money to environmental groups, make a conscious effort to adopt

green lifestyle.

Characteristics:

Environmental Attitudes: High

Environmental Behaviors: High

Barriers to Green Living: Low

Environmental Knowledge: High

GREENBACKS- 36 (7.2%) Willing to pay extra for environmentally

preferable products

Characteristics:

Environmental Attitudes: High

Environmental Behaviors: Moderate

Barriers to Green Living: Moderately Low

Environmental Knowledge: Moderate

SPROUTS- 163 (32.6%) Willing to engage in environmental activities from

time to time but only when it takes little effort.

Characteristics:

Environmental Attitudes: Moderately Low

Environmental Behaviors: Moderate

Barriers to Green Living: Moderate

Environmental Knowledge: Moderately Low

GROUSERS- 4 (0.8%) Do not believe that individuals play any significant

part in protecting the environment.

Characteristics:

Environmental Attitudes: Low

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Environmental Behaviors: Moderately Low

Barriers to Green Living: High

Environmental Knowledge: Low

BASIC BROWNS- 277 (55.4%) These are people who are simply not

convinced that environmental problems are all that serious. The percentage

analysis shows that major population of Pune lies in basic brown group which

have low environmental attitude and behavior but portray high barriers in

adaptation of green lifestyle.

Characteristics:

Environmental Attitudes: Low

Environmental Behaviors: Low

Barriers to Green Living: High

Environmental Knowledge: Low

The 4th

hypothesis which states that Consumers of Pune city are well aware

of environmental problems is hereby proved incorrect as the majority (277 or

55.4%) of the sample population did not possess proper knowledge about

environmental degradation and the ways to uplift the state. Or in other words

the 4th

hypothesis which states that Pune people were well aware of the

environmental degradation does not hold good here as more than half sample

population did not have proper knowledge about the environment.

In order to find out the kind of differences within the criteria which

differentiated the most consistent groups from the groups of inconsistent

principles of their own ideology of saving the ecology, the total sample

population was further sub divided into 3 groups and presented below.

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5. FURTHER SUB DIVISION OF THE RESPONDENTS INTO 3

SEGMENTS AS PER ROPERS73

CRITERIA

Further, Roper sub divided US consumers into 3 major categories based on

their interest area of saving the ecology. These groups were:

1. Health Fanatics

2. Animal Lovers

3. Planet Passionate

1. Health Fanatics:

Health fanatics can be defined as those consumers who:

Are proactive and responsible for their own health and the health of their

family,

See organic as a method of control over what their family eats,

Accept that they may have to pay more for specific organic foods and are

willing to do so because of the high value they equate with certain item,

Have an increased reliance on food as preventative medicine and

Have faith that organic food is beneficial to health over the long-term.

The study found that majority of respondents (41%) were health fanatics i.e.,

interested in their own health.

2. Animal Lovers:

Those people who have concern for animal welfare, they feel that animals have

sentiments and that consideration should be given to their well-being,

especially when they are used by humans. These concerns can include how

animals are killed for food, how they are used for scientific research, how they

are kept as pets, and how human activities affect the survival of endangered

species. The study found that only 27.8% people were animal lovers.

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3. Planet Passionate:

Those people who have concern for the planetary welfare, they feel that there

is only one planet to live in and it is the moral responsibility of each individual

to take care of the mother earth. They are concerned about how human

activities affect the health of the planet. They work in the way of conserving

the scarce natural resources. Form the study conducted, the percentage analysis

revealed that 30.4% people showed their inclination towards saving the planet.

The study found that attitudinal orientations do not influence sustainable

consumer behavior. Environmental awareness are significant in the study,

however, it is not a reliable predictor for more eco friendly consumer behavior.

Non environmental orientations can either deter a person from practicing more

sustainable consumer behavior but some of them can also result in more

sustainable consumer behavior. The latter is the case when a behavior is

practiced by a consumer in order to satisfy non-environmental orientations

such as for example personal health or quality of products. Such behavior can

be called eco friendly as it although is not done with the intention of protecting

environment but indirectly lead to a decrease in negative impacts on the

environment. The study therefore suggests to address motive alliances, i.e.

addressing both environmental orientations as well as others with a change of

behavior. Such orientations addressed are for example fun seeking, career

orientation, interest in modern technology, health or traditional values.

Apart from the sustainable consumer behavior independency on attitudinal

factor, the study also found demographic variables to be significant influences.

The most important demographic variables were found to be a low income,

gender, as well as young generation.